1[transitive,intransitive]tickle (somebody/something)to move your fingers on a sensitive part of somebody’s body in a way that makes them laughThe bigger girls used to chase me and tickle me.I tickled his feet with a feather.Stop tickling!

2[transitive,intransitive]tickle (something)to produce a slightly uncomfortable feeling in a sensitive part of the body; to have a feeling like thisHis beard was tickling her cheek.My throat tickles.a tickling cough

3[transitive]to amuse and interest somebodytickle somebody/somethingto tickle somebody’s imaginationtickle somebody to do somethingI was tickled to discover that we'd both done the same thing.

Word OriginMiddle English (in the sense ‘be delighted or thrilled’): perhaps a frequentative of the verb tick, or an alteration of Scots and dialect kittle‘to tickle’.Idioms